Sean Kershaw's Weblog
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March 11, 2009
We "won", I testified, I was corrected...
At a House Education Committee meeting yesterday, an effort to limit the development of new chartered schools was narrowly defeated. I spoke in opposition to the proposal, which would have restricted new chartered schools that were in consolidated districts or within a mile of a district school that had closed from opening for 24 months since the closure/consolidation.
My testimony (posted below), originally said that this would harm districts that want to sell/lease their unused buildings to compensate for lost revenue. Districts would have had this option, even had the bill passed. I was publicly corrected by one of the Representatives who supported the restrictions.
It was a good lesson for me to double-check the facts. Our position would not have changed, but my argument would have been tighter. As much as we talk about being fact-based as an organization, it's important that we both get the facts right, and admit when we're wrong.
I had a nice conversation with my "corrector" Rep. Davnie, after the meeting about how to improve the charter/district dialogue, and the importance of facts in these conversations. He disagreed with our position, and positions we'd taken in the past, but raised a number of good points about the need to improve the quality of chartered school performance, and the quality of the dialogue between chartered schools and district schools.
March 10, 2009
"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education." - Thomas Jefferson, 1820
Moratorium on Charter Schools:
The Wrong Solution to Real Concerns
The Citizens League opposes legislation to put a temporary moratorium on chartered schools in consolidated districts or near where other public schools have closed.
The Citizens League was the driving force behind chartered schools twenty years ago, and we continue to support them as a means to develop high quality public schools that meet our rising expectations for performance for all students.
The very real need to improve the governance, management and performance of some chartered schools can and should be dealt with through existing proposals, and we are supportive of such efforts.
Districts where students show inadequate educational gains, or where there is a significant achievement gap between minority and majority students, need more and better public school options, not fewer. Chartered schools provide that opportunity.
Rather than turning the clock back on years of innovation and improvement in public chartered and district school options, Minnesota should be encouraging the development and replication of high quality public district and chartered school options, not limiting them.
This moratorium will not only have no impact on closing the achievement gap, it will have a number of perverse outcomes:
For example, the children in many urban neighborhoods that have had public school closings will be forced to continue traveling greater distances to attend public schools. This exacerbates, not addresses, their real concerns about equity in available neighborhood public school options.
To interpret Jefferson’s quote in a another context: If we are not satisfied with the quality of school options available to students and their families, the remedy is not to take these options from them, but to improve the quality of their public district and chartered school choices and opportunities.
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For additional information, contact Sean Kershaw, Executive Director, or Bob DeBoer, Policy Director, at 651.293.0575.
Note: This version is corrected from an earlier version that mistakenly claimed that school districts would be prohibited from selling/leasing buildings.
Posted by Sean Kershaw at March 11, 2009 5:52 AM